W. Bank raid leaves 4 dead

Israeli troops staged a rare incursion into this city Thursday, bulldozing cars and vegetable stands near the central square as they engaged gunmen and stone-throwing residents in a chaotic two-hour battle that left four Palestinians dead.

The raid, aimed at rescuing a team of undercover Israeli agents, was a diplomatic embarrassment for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as he headed to Egypt for talks with President Hosni Mubarak on how to revive peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

And it contributed to one of the bloodiest days in weeks for the Palestinians, who also counted six deaths in factional fighting in the Gaza Strip. The dead included a senior security officer of the Fatah movement killed during a dramatic daylong siege of his house by a Hamas paramilitary force.

At a testy news conference in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheik, with Olmert at his side, Mubarak said he had used their meeting to express “indignation” over the Israeli raid and to demand that Israel and the Palestinians “refrain from all practices that would put obstacles in the road to peace.”

Olmert responded, “I am sorry if innocent people were hurt.” He said the raid had been intended to protect Israel from terrorist attacks but “things developed in a way that could not have been foreseen.”

The two leaders, meeting for only the second time, discussed confidence-building measures that might pave the way for a resumption of substantive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks that collapsed six years ago.

But they spent much of their joint news conference sparring. They announced no progress toward a long-expected swap of a captured Israeli soldier for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. And they failed to agree on Egypt’s proposal to hold a peace summit involving Mubarak, Olmert, King Abdullah II of Jordan and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

In one tense exchange, Olmert demanded tougher Egyptian action against arms and money smuggled across the border to militants of the ruling Hamas movement in Gaza. Mubarak replied that Egypt would not hesitate to intercept weapons but reminded Olmert that Egyptian law allowed the passage of money as long as the carrier declared it to customs inspectors.

Abbas, who met with Olmert on Dec. 23 to begin discussing steps toward full-fledged negotiations, accused Israel of making false promises of peace. He demanded $5 million in compensation for the Ramallah raid, which left dozens of cars and shops damaged and 20 Palestinians wounded.

Saeb Erekat, a senior aide to Abbas, said, “When President Mubarak invites Mr. Olmert, he has one thing in mind: to help revive the peace process. Such Israeli incursions are absolutely undermining such efforts.”

Palestinian medical workers said the four people killed in Ramallah were men in their early 20s among a crowd throwing stones, firebombs, metal trash barrels, blocks of concrete and a refrigerator at the Israelis from rooftops. Four Israeli soldiers were reportedly injured in the clashes.

The Israeli army frequently conducts arrest operations in the West Bank but had not staged a raid in Ramallah, the Palestinian Authority capital, since May.

Israel Radio said the midafternoon undercover operation was authorized by Maj. Gen. Yair Naveh, the senior commander in the West Bank, as a rare opportunity to seize wanted militant Rabe Hamed. He is the local commander of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a militia loosely affiliated with Abbas’ Fatah movement.

The undercover unit, dressed like Palestinian workers, surrounded a building near the vegetable market where Hamed had been spotted with a handgun, witnesses said. The Israelis opened fire, seriously wounding him.

But before the Israelis could capture him, a large crowd gathered and hustled the militant to a hospital. The undercover squad called for backup, summoning forces stationed outside the city center, and managed to escape with four of Hamed’s colleagues in custody, the army said.

Within minutes, Ramallah’s central Manara Square, a traffic circle festooned with red lights for Eastern Orthodox Christmas and the recently concluded Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, was a battle zone.

Explosions and automatic-weapons fire shook the area as more than a dozen Israeli armored vehicles and several bulldozers rolled in. Smoke grenades filled the air and car alarms added to the cacophony.

Residents and shoppers scrambled for cover while several hundred Palestinians gathered to do battle. Two Israeli helicopters swooped in. Palestinians said the aircraft fired at a building; the army said they shot into an uninhabited area, covering Israeli troops.

Two Palestinian journalists, a reporter for the newspaper Al Ayyam and a photographer for the Maan news agency, were among the wounded.

Yousef Husni, a Ramallah resident, said it was the heaviest fighting in the city in nearly five years. “I saw a bulldozer clearing the block between the square and vegetable market, destroying cars and vending stands and everything else in its way,” he said.

Anger over such Israeli raids often unites the clashing Palestinian factions. Abbas met late Thursday with rival leaders and appealed for calm. In Gaza, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, of Hamas, urged all factions to “turn your weapons against the Israeli occupation.”

But the slaying of Col. Mohammed Ghayeb at his home in Beit Lahiya late Thursday may have made it difficult for the political leaders to rein in their militias and security forces.

Ghayeb was chief of the Preventive Security Service, a Fatah police force, in northern Gaza. He was on the phone with Palestine Television moments before his death, asking for help.

“They are killers,” he said of the attackers from Hamas’ paramilitary Executive Force. “They are targeting the house. Children are bleeding. For God’s sake, send an ambulance. We want an ambulance. Somebody move!”

The fighting killed four of Ghayeb’s guards and a member of the Hamas force, and wounded more than 30 people, including eight children.

boudreaux@latimes.com

Times staff writer Boudreaux reported from Jerusalem and special correspondent Abukhater from Ramallah. Special correspondent Rushdi abu Alouf in Gaza City contributed to this report.